Magnetar Financial LLC Reduces Holdings in News Corporation $NWSA

Magnetar Financial LLC reduced its holdings in shares of News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 55.7% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 28,877 shares of the company’s stock after selling 36,333 shares during the period. Magnetar Financial LLC’s holdings in News were worth $786,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in News by 1.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 51,764,497 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,409,030,000 after buying an additional 812,180 shares during the last quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP grew its position in News by 2.2% during the first quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP now owns 27,189,590 shares of the company’s stock valued at $740,101,000 after buying an additional 572,331 shares during the period. Dodge & Cox grew its position in News by 18.7% during the first quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 13,846,298 shares of the company’s stock valued at $376,896,000 after buying an additional 2,183,613 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of News by 1.5% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,391,564 shares of the company’s stock worth $146,758,000 after purchasing an additional 80,282 shares during the period. Finally, Contour Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of News by 21.1% in the fourth quarter. Contour Asset Management LLC now owns 5,382,702 shares of the company’s stock worth $148,240,000 after purchasing an additional 936,702 shares during the period. 66.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on NWSA. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $45.00 target price on shares of News in a report on Thursday, May 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of News from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 20th. Macquarie reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $32.70 price objective on shares of News in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of News from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, May 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $38.62.

News Stock Performance

Shares of News stock opened at $29.41 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.14 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a quick ratio of 1.72, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $29.47 and a 200 day moving average price of $28.17. News Corporation has a 52 week low of $23.38 and a 52 week high of $30.75.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.19 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.19. The business had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.09 billion. News had a net margin of 13.21% and a return on equity of 5.66%. The business’s revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.17 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that News Corporation will post 0.94 EPS for the current year.

News Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a half year 25 dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 8th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 10th will be issued a $0.10 dividend. This represents a yield of 70.0%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 10th. News’s payout ratio is 9.62%.

News Company Profile

News Corporation, a media and information services company, creates and distributes authoritative and engaging content, and other products and services for consumers and businesses worldwide. It operates through six segments: Digital Real Estate Services, Subscription Video Services, Dow Jones, Book Publishing, News Media, and Other.